a couple more things

The genre I refer to for Old Hickory and some of my other things is Hillbilly Gothic. Not all my plays fit, but some certainly do. They aren't necessarily ghost stories, but they have that Appalachian vibe and they deal with things either supernatural or, in the case of Old Hickory, potentially murderous.

Of course, Hillbilly Gothic, might imply humor, and most of my plays that fit under that umbrella are funny (hopefully) the lone exception would probably be Last Request, which isn't funny (which is good because it's not intended to be!) It fits because . . . well . . . there's a ghost in there. Last Request was actually my first multiple act play, and my wife, Bette and I had a wonderful reading of it years ago which was very well received. Peter Demaio (he was in Same Time Next Year on Broadway years ago) played the ghost part and he was wonderful. An interesting sidelight, he came up to me before the reading and said he was losing his voice and maybe shouldn't do it. I said you're kidding it's perfect. And it was. He sounded like he'd been breathing coal dust for centuries!

The other thing that occurred to me after finishing my first post was that I should have addressed the why now of it. Why now a solo piece? Essentially I wanted to work as an actor; and this was a way to make sure that I did something that was a damn good fit. I've been auditioning a lot lately, and it hasn't changed all that much from years ago . . . in other words, yes it's exciting to go in and get the chance to act for someone and give it your best shot, but it's still frustrating to keep doing it and doing it and doing it without getting parts. Not whining mind you, just the way it is . . . so . . . I wrote the piece, submitted it to three places . . . and one has responded, so far. One is fine. I just want to get the thing up on its feet and with Wallace to work with it's definitely ramped up several notches!

The closest thing to a one-hander that I've ever performed in is The Zoo Story with its monster 'story of Jerry and the Dog', which was over twenty years ago. It was quite a rush to tell a story like that and feel the audience change from laughter to fear . . . to feel them on the edge of their seats. To have that kind of control Of course, Jerry and the dog is what, five or six pages? Maybe ten minutes, or so? This baby is close to thirty pages and forty minutes! I'll be very interested to see how agile my brain is as far as learning the damn thing . . . ! More on that later I'm sure.